Will putting on magnesium oil or spray help with your little one's sleep?

There's something calming about the idea that we can help our little one's sleep by rubbing in or spraying on a magnesium preparation before bedtime

There's something very comforting about the thought that gently massaging magnesium oil or applying soft magnesium spray to your baby or toddler's feet, legs and lower tummy might help your precious little one sleep better. Sometimes, parents of babies under one year of age are advised to put magnesium flakes in the bedtime bath.

There's an embodied mindfulness to these preparations that soothes all of us. Tender rituals and loving physical attention are good for everyone's body and soul, whether small person or parent! The idea that the magnesium is absorbed through the skin to downregulate your little one's nervous system, helping your child calm into sleep and stay asleep, is an attractive belief (or hope) for us as parents. Applying a liquid in this way might even feel as if we're giving our precious child a small, daily blessing, which in itself has meaning and worth.

Can we trust the claims made by businesses promoting magnesium oil or spray for baby or toddler sleep?

Very unfortunately, we can't, no matter how well meaning the parents and businesses who promote magnesium for infant sleep are.

You might even hear it claimed that magnesium supplementation not only helps children have better sleep, but helps with mood and concentration, increased energy levels, stronger bones and teeth, and healthy muscles and nerves.

The truth is that claims made by those who recommend magnesium oils or sprays to help with our little one's sleep (not to mention other aspects of nervous system function), as if magnesium really helps and is evidence-based, are misrepresenting the science.

Here's what's known about magnesium and health

Magnesium is a mineral which is widely found throughout both the Earth's geology and our own bodies. We need it. Our kidneys competently regulate its excretion, either secreting more or secreting less, depending on dietary intake, to keep our magnesium levels stable. However, magnesium levels in the blood don't accurately reflect the magnesium that's stored in bone, muscle and other tissues of our bodies.

Magnesium is necessary in our bodies for

• Opposing the excitatory action of calcium, such as in the process of muscle contractions or in the central nervous system

• Regulating the function of about 300 different enzymes.

In our hospitals, intravenous magnesium is used for a range of serious conditions, including protection of the brains of prematurely born babies, treatment of pre-eclampsia and eclampsia of pregnancy and childbirth, in coronary care units for heart arrhythmias, and in severe asthma in children. Magnesium is a key ingredient in some laxatives. (Intravenous magnesium increases the concentrations of magnesium in a woman's breast milk only slightly.)

There is also some suggestion that high doses of oral magnesium supplementation might help with diagnosed anxiety disorders and sleep disorders in adults, though the evidence is not certain. There's no agreement about doses or treatment periods.

There's no strong and reliable evidence to prove that magnesium supplementation helps with Restless Legs Syndrome in adults, though that's the other area where magnesium supplements are commonly used. The idea that our toddlers have sleep problems due to restless legs is also not accurate or evidence-based, and is discussed here.

Is it possible that your baby or toddler is magnesium deficient?

Magnesium comes into human bodies when we eat high fibre foods such as dark leafy vegetables, legumes and whole grains, nuts and seeds - that is, a good, wholesome diet.

Magnesium deficiency due to poor diet is uncommon in otherwise healthy people, because the kidneys simply cut back on secreting magnesium in this situation. However, certain medical conditons like chronic alcoholism, gastrointestinal disease, or type 2 diabetes, or the use of certain medications can result in magnesium deficiency.

You can see that these conditions can't be extrapolated into concerns about magnesium deficiency in our babies and toddlers. There's no reason to be worried that your otherwise healthy little one is magnesium deficient, and that this is causing sleep problems. If you have concerns about your child's health, please see your GP.

If you're worried that your toddler is a picky eater, you can find out more in the section of The Possums Sleep Program called toddlers and food, starting here. You could also discuss this with your GP.

Does the use of magnesium applications on baby or toddler skin actually cause harm?

Yes and no. On the one hand, it's completely true to say there's no direct harm. But there are downsides.

• Before all else, attention is drawn away from the very important, simple, cost-free things that really can make a difference to your baby or toddler's sleep. These are the things that are addressed, step by step, in The Possums Sleep Program. (If you're interested, you can find out more about the dangers of One Fix Fallacy here.) That is, promoting magnesium stops families from receiving the help they actually need.

• Feeling you need to use magnesium oils or sprays adds an unnecessary extra expense to your family's budget (and grows the profits reaped by small businesses and multinational corporations alike when they promote false claims to sleep-deprived parents, which is in my view unethical business practice).

• Magnesium oils and sprays on your baby's or toddler's legs and tummy might result in a fine spotty red rash, because oil and lotions can block up the pores of our little ones' sensitive skins.

Parents can use their own (cost-free) superpowers, which genuinely help with baby or toddler sleep

Our own easy-to-access superpowers, which actually do downregulate our little one's nervous systems, and make sleep as consolidated as possible, can be used with enjoyment and confidence at bed-time (without needing to spend money).

These superpowers only work though, once our little one's sleep regulators are well aligned with our own. You can find out about keeping the biological sleep regulators healthy in babies here and in toddlers here.

Once your small child's sleep regulators are well aligned with your own, and your little one's sleep pressure is high, then the most powerful superpower for downregulating your baby or toddler's nervous system is cuddles and physical affection at bed-time. (If you're breastfeeding, this is part of the total package of a breastfeed. If you're reading a story, this is part of the total package of stories at bedtime.) Caresses, snuggles, laughter and cuddles give your little one an incredibly powerful dose of calming sensory motor input, which has strong downregulating neurohormonal effects upon your little one's brain and body.

The neurohormonal downregulating effects of cuddles and your loving attention have a far, far stronger effect than anything that could possibly be achieved with something like magnesium (even if magnesium was known to have some positive effects on sleep in children, which isn't the case). Tender, loving physical attention is amazingly good for family wellbeing, whether small person or parent, when it's time for a little one to go to bed!

Recommended resources

You can read about protecting sleep throughout childhood here.

You can read about how to nurture the flourishing of your little one's brain and nervous system here.

The US National Institutes of Health fact sheet on magnesium for consumers is here. The NIH fact sheet for health professionals on magnesium is here.

Selected references

Jafarabady K, Shafiee A, Eshraghi N. Magnesium sulfate for fetal neuroprotection in preterm pregnancy: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth. 2024;24(519):https://doi.org/10.1186/s12884-12024-06703-12889.

Gonzalez-Parejo P, Martin-Nunez J, Cabrera-Martos I. Effects of dietary supplementation in patients with Restless Legs Syndrome: a systematic review. nutrients. 2024;16:2315.

Rawji A, Peltier MR, Mourtzanakis K. Examining the effects of supplemental magnesium on self-reported anxiety and sleep quality: a systematic review. Cureus. 2024:DOI: 10.7759/cureus.59317.